An Exploratory Study on the Challenges Faced by Young Male Entrepreneurs in Karachi

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An Exploratory study on the Challenges Faced by Young Male Entrepreneurs in Karachi

Research Proposal [pic 2]

Spring 2016

4th Feb 2016

Submitted To:

Dr. Jawaid Qureshi

Submitted By:

Abdul Basit - 1435199

Syed Muhammad Haseeb - 1435218

Contents

1. Introduction        

1.1 Background        

1.2 Aims of Research        

2.0 REVIEW OF LITERATURE        

3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY        

3.1 Research Questions        

3.2 Research Design        

3.3 Sample Size        

3.4 Research Instrument        

References        

1. Introduction:

Interest in entrepreneurship in economies has grown within international business research due to the failure of getting employment, limited success of microfmance, lack of experience and knowledge and the relatively the unfulfilled promise of Government sector solutions. Research argues that entrepreneurial orientations and opportunities can be the answer to the former issue.

In recent years, entrepreneurship has been regarded as an important element not only of regional economic growth itself, but of economic resilience. It has been suggested that this generation should become known as E-Generation because, they are expected to become the most entrepreneurial generation since the Industrial Revolution (D. F. Kuratko, 2004). This would be no surprise as a Gallup poll (Walstad, 2010) conducted in 2010 found that 69% of its 602 surveyed university students expressed interest in starting a business. However, a similar kind of pool which have the students who has just started their business as entrepreneurs indicated that, they had faced several challenges even those which they haven’t identified as challenges.

To address this growing interest and lack of knowledge regarding the initial challenges many researchers have identified an entrepreneur as a risk taker having a challenging persona. They had to fight many odds and ends The Pakistani business environment falls well behind on many parameters for supporting entrepreneurship (World Bank & IFC, 2011). In–fact if they have given the same choice in any of the other developed country they could be in a better position.  The problem faced by Pakistani entrepreneurs includes lack of finance, stringent government policies, lack of support from family as well as, from other stakeholders, lack of knowledge and expertise, cumbersome bureaucratic procedures while setting a business venture, lack of entrepreneurial education, corruption and the most important challenge is speed money (Jahanshahi A.A.,et al.,2011). In a discussion with the chairman of Eatoye Pakistan he highlighted that, entrepreneurs come up with innovative ideas however, they have to bear some major obstacles like: Government regulations, cheap access to finance/ seed capital, organizational setup, competent partners and people mind-set were pointed out as the major challenges that an initial level entrepreneur had to face in Karachi. Moreover, political uncertainty and worsening law and order situation would become major bottlenecks towards carrying a business in Karachi.

1.1 Background

As per the Youth Economic Participation Strategy (YEPS) (2012) high levels of youth unemployment plague Pakistan as a whole. The Economic Outlook report (2012) states that, the demand for youth employment is much lower than the available supply of youth employment. The report further presents findings that even though the levels of education amongst the youth in Pakistan are at an all-time high however; the rate of growth in our economy is insufficient to provide for the high demand of the “young population”. This level of economic inactivity by the youth has an adverse impact on economies that have young populations, which is referred to as the ’youth bulge’. By addressing youth unemployment through new start-ups and by doing so increasing the level of youth economic participation, the future risk and inherent burdens of the youth bulge are mitigated and minimized. Disproportionately high unemployment figures for the youth highlight the importance of finding alternate ways of increasing youth participation (Herrington, Kew and Kew, 2010).

One of the common areas of reliance for society is for the public sector to provide economic opportunities to the youth via job creation, wage subsidies, social welfare grants and skills development initiatives. There is an increasing trend to move the focus from public sector solutions for increasing youth economic participation, to private and social sector solutions:

As social needs continue to increase while government and philanthropic donations, as well as other available resources, decrease. Using business tools to become sustainable is likely to be vital for the survival of many socially responsible organizations (Bosma & Levie, 2009, p.99).

Within the ambit of public and social sector solutions, falls the practice of young entrepreneurship. With the sole aim of creating sustainable business solutions to combat with social ills, young entrepreneurship participation is being looked at as a solution to bridge this gap (Bosma & Levie, 2009).

However, this participation in a country like Pakistan and specifically, in Karachi is challenging like any other city. Young entrepreneurs had to face a number of challenges ranging from arrangement of cheap financial arrangements to combating the issues of worst law and order situations which creates problems like corruption, unlawful money and other similar ways which can be even accounted.

1.2 Aims of Research

The main aim of this research is to determine the challenges which young entrepreneurs had to face while carrying out start-ups in Karachi. Karachi being the financial hub of the country where provide opportunities to all, had some challenges too. Start-ups has major role in creating employment as well as, contributions towards economic development of the country. Most of the technology start-ups had even thrown the major players from the market locally as well as, internationally. Therefore, the research is carried out in order to examine the challenges which become the major hurdle in the way of economic development and well-being of people.